Supporting pharmacy students' preparation for an entry-to-practice OSCE using video cases.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) are widely used, including in licensure examinations. OSCEs assess diverse skills in a structured manner, but can be stressful for students and have a significant organisational burden for faculty. Case-based video OSCE preparation resources were developed for students preparing for a licensure OSCE. The study aimed to examine student engagement, compare scores awarded by students to performances at specific competence standards with faculty scores, and examine usability, usefulness, and acceptability of the video cases. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: Final year pharmacy students (n = 149) enrolled in an integrated master of pharmacy programme in Ireland were invited to participate. Six sets of recorded OSCE-based video cases were developed, comprising multiple recordings of the same case scenario, with each pitched at a different level of performance. Students watched and scored the video cases. Usability, usefulness, and acceptability were evaluated via questionnaire. FINDINGS: One or more video cases were accessed by 70.5% of students. Score ratings awarded by the students, when compared to faculty ratings, showed an overall trend towards inter-rater agreement between students and faculty. Students felt positively in terms of the usability, usefulness, and acceptability of the videos. SUMMARY: Video cases designed to support OSCE preparation for a high-stakes national pharmacy licensure examination were widely used by students and were perceived to be usable, useful, and acceptable. Such video cases may be a feasible alternative to additional mock OSCEs to support student preparation.

Care bundles for women during pregnancy, labor/birth, and postpartum: a scoping review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: This scoping review will identify the existence and type of care bundles developed, evaluated, or used by health care professionals in providing maternity care to women during pregnancy, labor/birth, and postpartum. INTRODUCTION: Care bundles consist of at least 3 to 5 evidence-based health care interventions that are implemented together in 1 clinical episode, consistently. Care bundle use is predicated on the notion that better clinical outcomes can be achieved when the interventions, often existing as part of standard care, are used collectively rather than in isolation. Although widely adopted in some health care sectors (eg, in critical care), care bundle use during pregnancy, labor/birth, and postpartum appears relatively recent. INCLUSION CRITERIA: This review will include records on women during pregnancy, labor/birth, and postpartum (up to 6 weeks) as recipients of care bundles applied by a health care professional. Women may be at low or high risk of maternity complications, receiving maternity care in hospital, community, or home settings, in any geographical location. Care bundles applicable to neonates will be excluded. METHODS: The Maternity and Infant Care, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, and Epistemonikos databases will be searched from 2000 onward. The concepts of "care bundles" AND "maternity care" will underpin the search strings. Language limitations will not be applied, although only records published in English will be included. Two reviewers will independently assess the records for inclusion and extract the data. The findings will be charted using narrative summary text, illustrative tables, and illustrative figures. SCOPING REVIEW REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/bdwfy/.

Development of Professional Attributes through Integration of Science and Practice at First-Year Pharmacy Level.

The design, implementation and evaluation of a year 1 pharmacy-integrated learning component, using the World Health Organisation's (WHO) analgesic ladder as a scaffold for case-based learning, is described. A novel aspect of the integrated component is the mapping of the cases to the national Core Competency Framework (CCF) for Pharmacists in Ireland and to the school's own cross-cutting curricular integration themes. The integrated cases were student led and delivered through peer-to-peer teaching for 68 first-year pharmacy students. The integrated cases mapped strongly to three of the CCF's domains, namely, personal skills, organisation and management skills and supply of medicines. With regard to the school's curricular integrative themes, the cases mapped strongly to the curricular integration themes of professionalism and communications; medicines sourcing, production and use; and safe and rational use of medicines. Highlights from an anonymous online student survey were the recognition by students of the importance of core science knowledge for practice, the enabling of integrated learning and the suitability of the integrated component for entry-level. While a majority of students were found to favour individual work over group work, future iterations will need to consider a greater degree of group work with a view to reducing the volume of content and time required to complete the cases.

Design and Implementation of an Integrated Competency-Focused Pharmacy Programme: A Case Report.

This paper describes the design and implementation of elements of an integrated competency-focused pharmacy programme in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SoPPS), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland. Following a national review of pharmacy education and training in Ireland in 2010, and subsequent publication of legislation in 2014, the School has implemented a five-year integrated programme of pharmacy education and training, leading to the award of a Master's degree in Pharmacy (M. Pharm.). Curricular integration has been achieved by underpinning the new programme with a national competency framework for pharmacists and through the utilisation of curricular integration themes. Programme integration also encompasses embedded experiential learning placements in Years 2, 4 and 5 of the five-year programme. The new five-year integrated pharmacy programme, which commenced in 2015, replaced the 4 + 1 model of education and training where a four-year Bachelor's degree was followed by a one-year internship, which was a distinct and separate element of the students' training.

Tuning selectivity in macrotricyclic carbohydrate receptors; CH-->N mutations in aromatic spacers.

Dipicolinoyl spacer groups are used to control the conformational and H-bonding properties of tricyclic carbohydrate receptors 3 and 4. Binding selectivities are changed in relation to all-isophthaloyl system 1b.

Phase transfer of monosaccharides through noncovalent interactions: selective extraction of glucose by a lipophilic cage receptor.

We have previously shown that macrotricyclic host 1a is a powerful receptor for glucopyranosyl units in the nonpolar medium of chloroform. However, the solubility properties of 1a did not permit studies of the extraction of carbohydrates from aqueous solution. This paper describes the synthesis of the new variant 1b, furnished with a highly lipophilic exterior array of 12 benzyloxy substituents. In homogeneous solution, 1b behaves much as 1a, binding n-octyl beta-d-glucoside with K(a) = 720 M(-1) in CD(3)OH/CDCl(3) (8:92). In two-phase experiments, the improved solubility of 1b allows carbohydrate extraction to be observed. Three hexoses (glucose, galactose, and mannose), two pentoses (ribose and xylose), and the two methyl glucosides are all extracted substantially into chloroform from 1 M aqueous solutions. Among the hexoses, 1b shows notable affinity and selectivity for glucose, extracting detectable amounts even from 0.1 M aqueous solutions.